Hassan Rouhani greeted with cheers, protests on return to Iran after phone call with Obama

Hundreds of Iranians have cheered their president Hassan Rouhani on his return from New York, after a historic phone call with US president Barack Obama.

While an anticipated handshake between Mr Rouhani and Mr Obama at United Nations headquarters failed to materialise, they held a 15-minute call on Friday at the end of Mr Rouhani's trip for the UN General Assembly.

Iranian media said hundreds of Rouhani supporters keen to see him make good on pledges of "constructive interaction" with the world turned up to hail his UN visit.

About 100 conservative hardliners also appeared and, shouting the "Death to America" slogan common since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, pelted his official car with eggs and stones in protest at Mr Rouhani's diplomatic opening towards Washington, according to witness reports posted on Twitter.

The semi-official Mehr news agency ran pictures of groups of protesters holding up a Death to America placard and banging the sides of Mr Rouhani's limousine as it began to depart the airport.

Mehr said one protester threw his shoes at the car, a gesture of deep insult in the Islamic faith.

Local politician says phone call shows Iran's importance

There has been little reaction so far from Iran's political leaders but one senior parliamentarian tentatively welcomed Mr Rouhani's conversation with Mr Obama as a sign of the Islamic Republic's "position of authority".

"This (phone call) shows that Iran's place in the world is of critical importance. That the president of America insists on a telephone call is a sign of sincerity," Mehr quoted the head of parliament's committee for national security and foreign affairs, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, as saying on Saturday.

Mr Rouhani won election in a landslide last June, buoyed by many voters keen for steps towards moderation and reform after eight years of intensifying repression at home and isolation abroad under hardline predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

But new high-level contacts with US officials at the United Nations were unlikely to have happened without the approval of Iran's clerical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The polarised reactions on Mr Rouhani's return hinted at the challenge he faces in getting hardliners, especially in the powerful security elite, behind his conciliatory approach.

'Insufficient time' to coordinate earlier meeting

US officials said the phone call - which concentrated on how to resolve the standoff over Iran's nuclear program - was requested by the Iranian side.

But in comments to journalists after his return, Mr Rouhani indicated it was an US initiative.

Mr Rouhani told journalists that contrary to reports in Western media, he had not refused a meeting with Mr Obama earlier in the week but there was insufficient time to coordinate it.

"To have a meeting between the presidents of these two countries there are many necessary steps. If this meeting had been compressed into the program, it would have been premature," the official news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.